The False Advertising Law (FAL) makes it a crime for a person or a firm, corporation, or association, or any employee thereof, to engage in specified false or misleading advertising practices. The Unfair Competition Law (UCL) makes various unfair competition practices unlawful, including any unlawful, unfair, or fraudulent business act or practice and unfair, deceptive, untrue, or misleading advertising. Existing law requires every keeper of a hotel, inn, or lodginghouse to post a statement of rates by the day for lodging and prohibits collection of a sum greater than that amount, as specified. This bill would, beginning July 1, 2024, require a person or an internet website, application, or other similar centralized platform that advertises a hotel room rate or short-term rental rate before the public in this state, or from this state before the public in any state, to include in the advertised hotel room rate or short-term rental rate all mandatory fees, as defined, that will be charged in order for the consumer to stay in the hotel room or short-term rental and include in the total price to be paid, before the consumer reserves the stay, all taxes and fees imposed by a government on the stay. This bill would authorize certain public attorneys, including the Attorney General, to bring an enforcement action against a person or an internet website, application, or other similar centralized platform that knew or should have known that it has advertised a hotel room rate or short-term rental rate in violation of these provisions, and would require a court to impose a civil penalty of not more than $10,000 for each violation after consideration of specified factors.
Sponsored bills
Maddy summaryThis bill proclaims September 2024 as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in California to raise public visibility about mental health resources and suicide prevention services. The measure encourages residents to recognize warning signs, discuss mental health openly, and direct those in crisis to support systems like the 988 lifeline. While it does not create new laws or funding, it serves as an official state declaration to promote education and community engagement during the designated month.
This measure would provide for the promotion and encouragement of solutions and resources for keeping the oceans and coastlines healthy and eliminating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
This measure would urge the President and the Congress of the United States to address, with effective policies, the issue of servicemembers who were unjustly discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" or predecessor provisions, in order to unify efforts to upgrade discharges issued under the DADT policy, and to restore benefits.
The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to annually designate convenience zones and requires at least one certified recycling center that meets certain requirements to be located within every convenience zone. The act authorizes up to 10 limited-term recycling pilot projects, subject to certain requirements, that are designed to improve redemption opportunities in unserved convenience zones, and deems a convenience zone that falls within the area of an operational, department-approved pilot project to be served. The act makes the authorization provisions inoperative on June 30, 2026, and repeals them on January 1, 2027. The act establishes the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund to the department for specified purposes, including the amount necessary to pay handling fees to certain types of recyclers to provide an incentive for the redemption of empty beverage containers in convenience zones. The act makes a pilot project recycler eligible to apply for handling fees from the department. This bill would authorize recycling pilot projects to operate until January 1, 2034, and repeal those provisions on that date. By extending the time recycling pilot projects may operate, the bill would make an appropriation by increasing expenditures from a continuously appropriated fund for handling fee payments to pilot project recyclers. The bill would limit the time that a convenience zone that falls within the area of an operational, department-approved pilot project is deemed to be served to January 1, 2027.
Existing law, the Veterinary Medicine Practice Act, establishes the Veterinary Medical Board within the Department of Consumer Affairs for the licensure and regulation of veterinarians and the practice of veterinary medicine. Under existing law, registered veterinary technicians are authorized to perform animal health care services on animals impounded by a state, county, city, or city and county agency pursuant to the order of a veterinarian licensed or authorized to practice in this state. Existing law makes a violation of the act a crime. This bill would authorize the order established by the veterinarian that authorizes a registered veterinary technician to perform animal health care services, as described, to include, among other things, information pertaining to time periods by which an impounded animal is required to be assessed at intake and monitored while in the custody of an agency, protocols to address the treatment of common medical conditions encountered in impounded animals, and communication requirements between the registered veterinary technician and the supervising veterinarian.
Existing law defines types of theft, including petty theft, grand theft, and shoplifting. Existing law also defines the crime of burglary, which consists of entering specified buildings, places, or vehicles with the intent to commit grand or petty theft or a felony. This bill would, until January 1, 2030, create sentencing enhancements for selling, exchanging, or returning for value, or attempting to sell, exchange, or return for value, any property acquired through one or more acts of shoplifting, theft, or burglary from a retail business, if the property value exceeds specified amounts. The bill would additionally make these enhancements apply to any person acting in concert with another person to violate these provisions. By adding new sentencing enhancements, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law, until January 1, 2026, makes a person guilty of organized retail theft, punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony, as specified, if the person acts in concert with one or more persons to steal merchandise from one or more merchant's premises or online marketplaces with the intent to sell or return the merchandise for value, acts in concert with 2 or more persons to receive, purchase, or possess merchandise knowing or believing it to have been stolen, acts as an agent of another to steal merchandise from one or more merchant's premises or online marketplaces as part of an organized plan to commit theft, or recruits, coordinates, organizes, supervises, directs, manages, or finances another to undertake acts of theft. This bill would extend the operation of the crime of organized retail theft indefinitely. By extending the operation of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law defines the crime of burglary to include entering a vehicle when the doors are locked with the intent to commit grand or petit larceny or a felony. Existing law makes the burglary of a vehicle punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony. This bill would make forcibly entering a vehicle, as defined, with the intent to commit a theft or a felony therein a crime punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for a period not to exceed one year or imprisonment in a county jail for 16 months, or 2 or 3 years. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law prohibits the taking of the personal property of another, as specified, prohibits removing any part of a vehicle without the consent of the owner, and prohibits the possession or receipt of stolen property, as specified. A violation of these prohibitions is punishable as either a misdemeanor or a felony. This bill would make it a crime for a person to unlawfully possess property that was acquired through one or more acts of theft from a vehicle, unlawful entry of a vehicle, burglary of a locked vehicle, or vehicle tampering, if the property is not possessed for personal use and the person has the intent to sell or exchange the property, or the intent to act with another person to sell or exchange the property, and the value of the possessed property exceeds $950. The bill would, for the purpose of determining the value, allow the aggregation of the value of other illegally obtained property possessed by the person within the past 2 years. The bill would make this crime punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law defines types of theft, including petty theft, grand theft, and shoplifting. Existing law also defines the crimes of robbery and burglary. Existing law sets forth specific rules relating to the jurisdiction for the prosecution of theft by fraud, organized retail theft, and receiving stolen property, including that the jurisdiction for prosecution includes the county where an offense involving the theft or receipt of the stolen merchandise occurred, the county in which the merchandise was recovered, or the county where any act was done by the defendant in instigating, procuring, promoting, or aiding or abetting in the commission of a theft offense or other qualifying offense. Existing law jurisdictionally limits prosecution of each of the above to criminal actions brought by the Attorney General. This bill would no longer limit the jurisdictional rules for the above crimes to criminal actions brought by the Attorney General. If a case is brought by someone other than the Attorney General and multiple offenses are committed by the same defendant in multiple jurisdictions, the bill would allow a criminal action to be brought in any of those jurisdictions subject to a hearing on consolidation of the offenses, as specified. The bill would require the prosecution to present written evidence at the hearing that all district attorneys in counties with jurisdiction over the offenses agree to the venue. The bill would require charged offenses from jurisdictions where there is not a written agreement from the district attorney to be returned to that jurisdiction.